The real problem on York University is that there isn't enough security on the huge, sprawling campus. Making every single student pay hundreds of dollars to take a mandatory course in women's studies or equity isn't going to change that, or make the students any safer.

York University has, remarkably, experienced its sixth reported sexual assault in less than one month. According to police, the latest attack occurred at a bus stop at Ian MacDonald Blvd. and The Chimneystack Rd. last Thursday, just one day after another incident was reported of a sexual assault inside a student residence.

The York student union has, in response, revived its vain lobby for its pet “preventative” solution; that of a mandatory equity or women’s studies class for all undergraduate students at York University.

The push for a women’s studies course as a condition for graduation is not new for the York Federation of Students (YFS), which has been long been lobbying York administration to enforce its logistically-complicated adoption. Most recently in an interview with York newspaper Excalibur, Safiyah Husein, the VP equity for YFS, maintained that such a course would serve as a “preventative measure to get to the root causes and stop [sexual assaults and violence] before that happens.”

Because, clearly, would-be assailants simply don’t understand the ingrained systemic forces at play. If they took the time to consider how unconscious assumptions about the roles and men and women in society informed their actions, they would surely reconsider that violent sexual attack. Same goes for the flocks of robberies that seem to incessantly plague York’s Keele campus:

“Hey buddy, is that the new iPhone 5? Hand it over. Actually, wait a minute, do I really want to do this? Or I am just acting out in response to an upbringing of socioeconomic discrimination and hardship? Yes, that’s it. Good thing I was forced to take that class two semesters ago. Pardon me, sir. My mistake. Here’s your phone back. I’m just discontented by your apparent privilege, and frustrated by a society that puts precedence on consumerism over social equity. Carry on.”

Even if we were to grant that making such a course mandatory would actually reduce violence — a whopper of assumption, but let’s grant it for the sake of argument — it seems few of the assaults on York property are actually committed by York students. The suspect in this most recent attack is alleged to be in his 30s or 40s—most likely not a York University undergraduate student. And the arrest following a string of assaults in July saw three counts of sexual assault (and others) brought against a 20-year-old Toronto man — also not a York University student. In those cases and many more, a mandatory course forced on York’s 45,000 undergraduate students would have absolutely zero effect.

At most, the idea of an equity course as a practical means to quell violence seems a nice thought experiment. But debating it now is, arguably, counterproductive. It distracts attention from the real issue at York — the appalling state of security on the campus. York covers a huge geographic area, with campus facilities spread across all of it. There are plenty of dark fields and blind corners, and not nearly enough patrols and security cameras. York is always pledging to do better here, and no doubt after the latest string of assaults, will promise to do better still. But it’s not working. The campus is not a safe place, and that needs addressing. Now.

If approved, the implementation of the course would be at least two years away, and only if the proposal wasn’t met with mass revolt by the student population. Most kinesiology or engineering students wouldn’t cheerfully hand over an additional $600 for a compulsory class, especially if that class has nothing to do with their degree. This is especially true since, by explicitly linking their desire for the course to the need to reduce sexual violence, YFS has made it entirely fair for those being forced to take it to wonder why they’re being treated as a rapist-in-waiting. And such a course would remain futile if a good proportion of campus crimes continue to be committed by people outside of the York community.

The need to clamp down on sexual violence at York University is obvious. But forcing a new equity course on every student will do nothing to make the campus safer, and would serve only to encourage students uninterested from funding someone else’s thought experiment to take their tuition dollars elsewhere.

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